Questionable Highway Projects Escape Budget Scrutiny in Wisconsin

A $125 million “road to nowhere.” Another $100+ million for a bypass around a town of 2,711. Welcome to the era of “fiscal austerity” in Gov. Scott Walker’s Wisconsin.

Potholes and rough roads cost each Wisconsin driver an additional $281 annually, according to a new report. But they won't get any relief under Scott Walker's budget. Instead, they're getting more highways. Photo: ##http://dailyreporter.com/tag/ch2m-hill-inc/## The Daily Reporter##

The findings indicate that in all his zeal for cutting public spending, Walker has a blind spot for highways. Despite a $3.6 billion budget deficit, Walker’s Wisconsin is forging ahead with a fortified highway budget. The Walker administration has proposed a 13 percent increase in highway construction. Meanwhile, $10 million in transit cuts have been proposed, in addition to a reduction in $48 million for maintaining local roads.

Wisconsin is hardly crying out for new road capacity. The state already ranks 13th in the nation on transportation spending per capita, or 24 percent above the national average, the report notes. So it’s not clear why highways have garnered such a privileged position in the state budget, said report co-author Bruce Speight.

“This is spending gone wild on questionable projects at a time when we should be prioritizing maintaining our existing infrastructure and transit,” he said.

Of the four projects analyzed by WISPIRG, the group found all of them to be justified by outdated data and generally of questionable merit.

I-90 Widening

Wisconsin is planning to widen 45 miles of I-90 south of Madison to the Illinois border from four lanes to six. The project is slated to cost $715 million, but local press reports have put it at as a high as $1.5 billion. PIRG reports that the project was justified using traffic data from 2002. Furthermore, crash data indicate safety problems could be remedied with less expensive interventions at interchanges.

Highway 15

Plans are to widen State Highway 15 for about 11 miles between New London and Greenville. The main impetus for this $125 million project is to bypass the town of Hortonville, (pop. 2,711), report authors say. Furthermore, the current conditions are hardly pressing; WISDOT has rated the current level of service on this road as a “B.”

Highway 38

This nine-mile project would widen Highway 38 from a two-lane road to a four-lane divided high-speed highway. The road runs between Racine and Milwaukee in a largely rural area that is spotted with cabbage farms. Report authors found “no obvious rationale” for this $125-million project, dubbing it a “road to nowhere.”

Tri-County Freeway Widening

Traffic congestion is being used to justify this $390 million, five-mile highway reconstruction and widening project in Menasha. However, according to PIRG, the environmental analysis on the project indicated the freeway currently experiences “minimal congestion.”

Speight said these four projects were approved the state’s planning commission in October, before Scott Walker took office. But it’s unclear how they’ve escaped the scrutiny Walker has applied to other state projects. Speight further noted that in every case the state has chosen to pursue the most expensive of the alternatives presented for the projects.

“What’s stunning about this is [Walker] campaigned on eliminating public waste and eliminating potholes,” Speight said. “He has proposed a budget that is cutting funding to eliminate potholes and he is potentially wasting $2 billion on unnecessary projects.”

What’s even dumber is that Hwy 38 just finished reconstruction this year, making the lanes that do exist all new and nice. So perhaps they want to tear that up to make it a divided 4 lane highway?!? I drive on Hwy 38 all the time, it is fine the way it is. And I used to work on one of those cabbage farms. 🙂

Anonymous

Walker has to payback all the road construction companies for their campaign contributions. Hence he is approving wasting money on building unnecessary roads while cutting funding for schools. Well, guess kids can’t vote and don’t contribute to his campaign fund.

Jeff Warg

There are five routes between Racine and Milwaukee besides I-94 and not one of them is four lanes. Hwy 38 has almost as much traffic on the northern end as four lane Hwy 20 does near I-94. Racine is 15-20 minutes from the freeway and has a 14% unemployment to show for it. 794 should be extended south asap and use the money allocated for 38 on it.

Quote:”This nine-mile project would widen Highway 38 from a two-lane road to a four-lane divided high-speed highway. The road runs between Racine and Milwaukee in a largely rural area that is spotted with cabbage farms. Report authors found “no obvious rationale” for this $125-million project, dubbing it a “road to nowhere.”

Bruce A Johnson

Highway 38 – This nine-mile project would widen Hwy 38 from a two-lane road to a four-lane divided high-speed highway. The road runs between Racine and Milwaukee in a largely rural area that is spotted with cabbage farms. Report authors found “no obvious rationale” for this $125-million project, dubbing it a “road to nowhere” … which is where this state is headed if this excuse for a governor is not recalled.

Bernardmulvaney

So the four projects were approved before Walker took office. Why not focus on WHO SUBMITTED the projects in the first place. You need to show some journalistic objectivity if you expect people to read your material.

Weckwerth66

Hy 15 , the Hortonville bypass is a major highway connector to Highway 45 This is an outlet Highway from a greater part of Outagamie county to reach the northern counties of the state .The other main outlet is Highway 47which is the southern portion of the county .No it is not Hortonvilles personal bypass like you claim it is

Rschuh

we live in wisconsin…ever hear of frost/snow/ice/plows/salt?
STH 15 on that stretch is a nightmare to drive and dangerous as they get
do your homework before you write
Walker finally balanced the budget!!!! Makes sense to me!

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Governor Scott Walker might be too busy campaigning for president to care, but the Wisconsin legislature handed him a rebuke last week, rejecting his plans for debt-fueled highway expansion. The Republican-controlled legislature’s Joint Finance Committee trimmed about 35 percent off Walker’s proposed $1.3 billion in borrowing for highways. If approved by the Assembly and Senate — a big […]

Just a few months ago, a handful of governors made a big show of their “budget consciousness” by torpedoing passenger rail projects. Given that highway projects represent a much larger share of a state’s spending, we might expect these fiscal watchdogs to be tamping down on road construction with equal fervor. That does not appear […]

Just a few months ago, a handful of governors made a big show of their “budget consciousness” by torpedoing passenger rail projects. Given that highway projects represent a much larger share of a state’s spending, we might expect these fiscal watchdogs to be tamping down on road construction with equal fervor. That does not appear […]

There’s really no argument: GOP presidential hopeful Scott Walker has been an absolute disaster for transportation progress in Wisconsin. As governor, he’s slashed funding for transit, isolating urban workers in Milwaukee. Meanwhile, he’s increased funding for all sorts of wasteful highway projects, like the billion-dollar widening of I-94 in Milwaukee, pilfering funds for local roads […]

Highway costs have nearly doubled WisDOT's projections, and the overruns will be even bigger for projects that are still in the works. But Governor Scott Walker isn't interested in reining in highway spending.